WASHINGTON – Democrats — and some Republicans — are pushing to boost funding for FBI counterterrorism teams and grants to states to protect against Russian meddling in elections.

Lawmakers want more than $700 million for election security added to a sweeping $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that Congress must pass by March 23 to keep the government open. The House could take up the spending bill as early as next week.

"We cannot leave states to their own devices in defending against the sophisticated cyber tactics of foreign governments," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and 14 other House Democrats wrote in a letter this week to leaders of the House Appropriations Committee. "An attack on the electoral infrastructure in one state is an attack on all of democracy in America."

Congress has done little in response to last year's reports from the Department of Homeland Security that Russian hackers tried to breach election systems in 21 states in 2016. Although no actual votes were changed, hackers broke into Illinois' voter registration database.

In their letter to the Appropriations Committee, Democrats asked for $400 million for states to replace voting machines that could be vulnerable to manipulation and $14 million for the Election Assistance Commission to help states secure their election systems.

Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., was working on the huge overall spending bill, and his office had no comment on the Democrats' request.

In a separate letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Democratic leaders asked for a $300 million boost to the FBI's effortsto counteract any attempts by Russia to manipulate social media to influence American elections. Russia used Facebook, Twitter and Google to try to sow discord among American voters in the 2016 election and beyond.

Passing the overall government funding bill will require Democratic votes in the Senate.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is trying to attach a bipartisan Senate bill to the broader spending bill to authorize $386 million in federal grants to improve state election systems. She introduced the bill with Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Kamala Harris, D-Calif.

"We know Russia interfered in our last election, yet since then, we’ve had no hearings, no votes and no real action to protect our elections from future interference by our adversaries," Klobuchar said. "Elections have started — there’s no more time to wait."

Any additional funding that Congress approves this year may be too late for states to buy voting machines before Nov. 6, but it could help them do so in time for the 2020 presidential election. The first regular congressional primary took place Tuesday in Texas, and the next is scheduled for March 20 in Illinois.

The money could help states secure registration rolls and vote-counting processes, said Thomas Hicks, chairman of the Election Assistance Commission.

“If Congress can get us the money, we’ll do our best to get that money out to the states as quickly as possible," Hicks said. “States are not just focused on machines themselves, they’re focused on all aspects, from registration to counting (votes) to reporting of the results themselves."

He said he does not think there’s enough time for states to buy new voting machines with any money they would receive from Congress this year. But he said some states can take smaller steps to improve cybersecurity, including implementing two-step authentication for passwords. He said there’s also a focus on protecting voter registration sites.

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said there have been unsuccessful attempts to breach his state’s election system, and his office is working with computer experts and meeting with officials from the Department of Homeland Security to increase protection.

"Because of the environment we’re in today, I don’t know that we can ever do enough," he said.